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How to Install Tamriel Rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt Installation Guide

Welcome to Tamriel Rebuilt! This installation guide will walk you through installing TR and also covers some common troubleshooting issues. There is a video version of this guide on youtube.

Pre-Installation Setup

To begin, make sure you have english-language version of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind installed, along with the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions, and the 1.6 patch. Morrowind Game of the Year edition includes Tribunal and Bloodmoon, but not the 1.6 patch. The patch is available from the Bethesda Softworks website. If you’re not sure if you patched it, load the game up to the main menu and check the lower left corner. It should say 1.6.1820. If you have MCP (see below) this will read MCP 2.1 (or whichever version you have). This is also fine, as MCP requires the 1.6 patch.

If you have a previous version of TR installed, please remove it. If you had a version of TR prior to 16.09, we recommend starting a new game. If you’re having issues since updating to a new version, see troubleshooting below.

Downloading Tamriel Rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt is downloaded in two parts: the masterfiles, and the datafiles.

The datafiles are the models, textures, and other artwork that you interact with in-game. They are required. We offer both HD and vanilla-equivalent datafiles. Download and use only one. They are are hosted at Tamriel-Rebuilt.org or Morrowind Nexus.

You must download both the master files and the data files to play TR.

There is also an addon music pack, which is available from the Main Release page on our site.

Both the Data Files and Master Files, downloaded and ready to install.

Unpacking Tamriel Rebuilt

Now that you have both the masterfiles and the datafiles, either use a mod manager to install the mods, or do it manually. For a manual installation, unpack the masterfiles into your Morrowind/Data Files folder and the data files into your Morrowind folder. Inside your data files folder you should now see TR_Mainland.esm, TR_Preview.esp, Tamriel_Data.esm, PT_Data.bsa, and TR_Data.bsa. WinRAR is a good program to use for this.

If using the addon music pack, extract it into your Data Files folder.

Extracting the Master Files into the Data Files folder with WinRAR

Extracting the Data Files into the Morrowind Folder with WinRAR

Once your data and master files are extracted, your Data Files folder should look like this.
Depending, you might have other mods in here also, or not have TR_Travels in your version of TR.

Registering Your BSA

Next, we register the BSAs. This is the most important step; It is required that you register your BSA. (Even if you used NXM or another mod manager to install TR!) To do so, open up your Morrowind.ini, which is found in the Morrowind folder. (If you do not see Morrowind.ini, run MorrowindLauncher.exe and open up the options menu. This should force the game to generate a new ini.) Backup your ini before you make any changes to it. Down the bottom of the ini file you will see a list of archives. This list of archives will not automatically update! Add in TR_Data.bsa and PT_Data.bsa if it they are not already listed. Save the file and exit it.

Your Morrowind.ini should be in your Morrowind folder. Scroll down to the bottom to see the archive list.

Make sure you have PT_Data and TR_Data listed. They should be after BM & TB.
Also, make sure your Game Files list is at the VERY bottom of the ini file. Otherwise weird issues can happen.
Cut and paste it to move it to the very bottom if needed.

Updating The Load Order

Once the BSAs are registered, open up your load order in the Morrowind Launcher or a mod manager. Check your load order. Tamriel Rebuilt should be loaded just after the vanilla masterfiles. The load order should read Tamriel_Data, TR_Mainland, TR_Preview, and then TR_Travels if you have it. This load order should show up by deafult. If you have other mods, load them all after all TR plugins. Mods like Project Tamriel should be loaded just after TR.

Proper load order, as viewed in the Morrowind Launcher.

Proper load order, as viewed from Nexus Mod Manager.

Make sure you tick the box next to Tamriel_Data.esm and TR_Mainland.esm. These are required. Then, if you want to have TR's preview content available, also tick TR_Preview. Be warned: this preview content is changed and updated with each new release. Changes may be large or small, and may break your saved games if they rely on this. Use it at your own risk. It is, however, pretty dang cool to see all the things we’re working on (at least, we think so).

If your version of TR includes TR_Travels.esp, this mod links up travel networks between TR and Vvardenfell. Check the readme on your release to see exactly which travel lines are changed. Later versions of TR may not include this esp, since it will eventually be merged into the other files.

And now, your copy of Tamriel Rebuilt should be ready to play!

Troubleshooting

Q: I swear I registered my BSAs. But every time I do it, I go in-game and get error messages. When I check back on my ini, the changes I made magically disappeared! What happened?A: Make sure your Game Files list is at the very bottom of the ini file. For some reason, the ini occasionally puts the file list not at the bottom. Then, when the game or mod managers edit this file list, it accidentially overwrites other stuff in the ini. This can delete all kinds of stuff, like the archive list, weather conditions, or even level up dialogue.

Q: My map is glitching; every time I try to scroll over to TR, it won’t let me. Why can’t I see all of TR?A: Morrowind’s native map can only scroll out so far. This glitch actually happens with the Bloodmoon expansion. To fix it, use Morrowind Code Patch (see above) and use the map expansion option.

Q: I had a version of TR previous to 16.09. When I switched to a new version, my saved games/mods went haywire. What happened?A: With the 16.09 release, TR changed its data files over to Tamriel_Data. This changed both the name of the BSA/ESM and the CS IDs of every single object we use. Unfortunately, this caused all saved games and mods that rely on previous versions to be totally incompatible with newer versions. But don’t lose hope! To fix this issue, there is a patcher available to update references to old asset IDs to point to the correct new asset IDs. You may still need to update your saved game/mod with Wrye Mash/Bash to correctly rely on Tamriel_Data.esm instead of TR_Data.esm. Also, if your mod relied on TR_Preview… don’t! TR_Preview changes with each release and may break mods. Stick to the content of TR_Mainland for modding.

The patcher is included in Tamriel_Data when you download it.

General Notes

Due to its age, Morrowind occasionally has errors related to permissions. To fix them, install Morrowind someplace other than the Program Files folder and run it as an administrator.

Tamriel Rebuilt is fully compatible with OpenMW. The installation process is the same, but you may need to import your ini before OpenMW will notice changes. Check the OpenMW site for details.